The Last Oath That I Ever Swore
by BlackRain88
Summary: Sam and Dean, brown-coats who fought in the war along side their father. Sam, the grief-ridden teenager who just wanted to go to school. He should have been more careful... AU OBVIOUSLY!  One-Shot


I wanted to write out this idea because it was really cool and I had the whole structure of it in my mind. It's probably going to be a one-shot cause it's so nice like this and if I start it into a fanfic, it might never end. If I get inspiration and begs, I might make it into a fic one day. Please review and I hope you enjoy.

PS: Sorry if it's not all old englishy enough :P

Disclaimer: Dear Buddah, please give me the Firefly universe, Supernatural, a pony, and a plastic rocket!

* * *

They were from one of the most dangerous rim planets, Lilac. First hand, they learned time and time again that Reavers existed. They tormented the lands and brought their havoc and hell upon the people. A few people banned together to take down the Reavers and make their world a safer place.

They called themselves hunters and if they hated one thing more than those soulless monsters in the shape of mutilated men, it was the Alliance, the Alliance that never bothers to pass by and help protect them, the Alliance that vehemently denies the existence of those all too real demons of the verse. Those ignorant bastards stay in their cozy homes with their silk clothes barking out orders, taking control of whatever they can while turning a blind eye to danger. Officers claimed to protect and bring order, but all they did was grab whatever profits they could and run.

Many of the men were in the war for the Independence. Volunteers.

John Winchester brought his boys to fight in the war alongside him. While a fifteen year old Dean stormed into battle with a romanticized pride, eleven year old Sam just wanted things to go back to normal. He was just a kid. His mother was murdered by Reavers and then, not long after, the war came and forced them into action. While Sam had no desire for a hostile Alliance take-over, his heart wasn't in the battles he was forced to fight through to protect his land. Seeing the destruction and hell around him only made him more sick with grief.

So, to his brother and fathers extreme distaste, he would spend the times they weren't worrying about blowing up reading. He read all kinds of things about all kinds of subjects. Math, History, English, the planetary system, anything he could get his hands on, and he also snatched more than a few books out of the luggage of their dead enemies when Dean and John weren't looking.

When the war finally ended, sixteen year old Sam wanted to go to a good school. He communicated secretly with teachers from the core planets who were astonished by his learning abilities. They offered to send him to a very special program and, to Sam's amazement, they offered him a full scholarship so that he could go right away. They even offered him transportation and sent over a private jet to pick him up.

It had been two years since the war ended and the sting of loss was still felt severely by the other two living Winchesters. At eighteen years of age and a bright future within sight, Sam got nothing but an earful of screams and insults from his father. The oldest Winchester basically kicked him out, and the cold looks he got from his brother told him all he needed to know about what Dean felt.

So he left, swearing to himself that he would never contact his family again.

Months passed and neither John nor Dean heard a word from Sam.

Then the letters came, written by Sam, messy, spoken in a code, a series of words hidden in nonsense that made sense only to his family.

It was a message.

Sam was getting hurt. He was trapped and in danger and crying out for help.

John was gone, out in the skies on a ship watching out for Reavers. Only Dean got the letters and when he sent word to his father, he got no word back. Either he didn't believe the letters were real or he didn't bother to look at the message after hearing mention of Sam.

Dean wasn't one for wasting a single moment. Even though he'd been mad at Sam for leaving to go to an Alliance school, he still loved his brother with all his heart and couldn't bear the thought of anything happening to him. He was Sammy's big brother. He was supposed to protect him.

So he went looking for Sam, for where he might be. Unfortunately, getting even the smallest scrap of Alliance information was difficult for him because of his known rivalry with them. They didn't trust Dean Winchester, veteran, volunteer in the war, and known vigilante. It took a lot of digging and fake ids to get anywhere at all. Thankfully, the Alliance knew him by name more than by face, so he was able to gather information that way without getting into trouble… most of the time.

Three years passed and Dean got nothing, despite the fake identities he used and the money he scrounged up with scams, cons, and his impressive hustling skills. He used every scent he earned to find even a clue to where the hell Sam might be.

He hated the fact that he hadn't even bothered to ask Sam WHAT Alliance College he was going to. Maybe if he'd gotten a name, he would have had Sam back by now.

Eventually, when he was deep into one of his fake identities, he got a word from some people, a call from them telling Dean they knew where his brother was. Now of course, Dean was suspicious as hell. How did they find out who he was and how did they know about Sam? He met up with them anyway though, arming himself to a tee and trying to be prepared for anything. Now of course, Dean was aware that this could be an ambush and they could very well shoot him dead on the spot, but for Sammy, he was willing to take the risk.

And thankfully Dean lived through the ordeal, even gained some serious allies. People who wanted to help Dean find his brother and eventually put a stop to the horrible things they were apparently doing to kids of intelligence like Sam to… Well, none of them knew exactly what the Alliance was doing, but it couldn't be good.

It took more money, sneaking around, and another year of hard effort, but eventually, they found a way to break in and sent in Dean to go get his brother. They'd put his false identification up with inside connections and made him out to be very highly respected. So Dean got inside and when he saw what they were doing to his brother… he felt like his heart and lungs had been ripped out of his chest. He attacked the man looking after his baby brother and, before even he knew what happened, his arms were around his neck and with a quick jerk, snap. Dean let go and left the dead man in a lump on the floor, running over to his brother.

"Sammy," he rasped, his voice tormented and slightly clouded with tears. "Sammy, it's Dean, your brother. Come on Sammy, wake up. Please wake up. I'm gonna get you out of this place."

He released the bindings holding Sam up onto this metal table and removed the device around his head and pulled out a long, metal stick that had been plunged through his forehead and into his brain. Dean looked him over. They'd been forcing him to keep up exercise since he was still muscled, but a little on the thin side. There weren't many other injuries that he could see on the blue gown-clad Winchester, but _ta ma de_(1), he'd just seen that _go tsao de_ _hwun dan_(2) stick a metal rod into his baby brother's brain! Who knew what else they'd done to poor Sammy?

He noticed a bead of blood gather on his forehead where he'd pulled out the metal rod and tried to brush it off, only succeeding in smearing it a little across his forehead. After a moment of staring at Sam, he ran to the door and walked over to the window to see if anyone was coming for them. The alarms sounded and Dean froze, realizing something.

_Wuh duh ma huh tah duh fong kwong duh wai shung!_(3) Those people had helped him in, sure, but they hadn't told him how to get OUT! He only knew where the meeting point was. He had no idea how to get passed the guards. And he couldn't bring in any weapons because they had detectors! What the hell was he going to do?

He jumped, ready to attack, when someone grabbed his arm and started dragging him away, only to realize who it was. Sammy! Oh good, he was up! A bright smile lit across his face.

"This way idiot," Sam said, looking annoyed.

He dragged Dean to the door and punched in a code, sighing in relief as the door opened. Dean looked him over as he did so, trying to analyze his mental state. He seemed fine, but under an adrenaline rush, so it was hard to tell. His eyes were wide and had a… look about them they hadn't had before. They spoke of pain, suffering, and unimaginable torment. Sam looked back at Dean and shook his head and made a distressed sound. Dean blinked at him. What? He hadn't said anything.

Sam grabbed dean and shoved him out into the hallway before walking out himself and looking back and forth, then they moved.

Sam managed to take Dean to the meeting point (just how did he know where it was anyway?) and avoid the guards up until they hopped out the window and stood onto the platform outside. Sam looked down at the tall drop down while Dean looked up, grinning as he saw a platform being lowered from an above ship for them to get on. He grabbed Sam and pulled him onto it. As they were raised back into the ship, Dean noticed something. Sam's focus seemed to be fading, as if his mind were off in another world.

When they got onto the ship, Dean grabbed Sammy and forced him into a big, tight, intense hug. For half a minute, Sam returned the hug with all of his force.

"It's so good to see you Sammy," Dean said, taking a deep breath and inhaling his brother's scent as he clung to him.

"You too Dean," Sam responded, squeezing even tighter.

Sam let out a small sob and Dean rubbed his back a little, trying to comfort him. His little brother had been through so much, and part of it was Dean's fault. If only he'd talked to Sam, at least asked where he was going, he could have found him sooner. He should have known something was wrong right away when he hadn't heard a word from Sammy.

And their father, Dean thought of him and felt rage fill up in his chest. Not answering Dean or bothering to help, too busy looking for Reaver activity to take a moment to think about his youngest son. _Boo hway-hun duh puo-foo!_(4)

The hug on Dean loosened from Sam's end and suddenly, he withdrew, which was okay because Dean realized he let the hug go on a little longer then it probably should have, but even now, he was sad that it ended. He wanted to grab hold of Sam and never let him go, just hold on til the entire Verse imploded. He was so happy to see him alive and… well? Sam looked distracted and started walking off in the opposite direction, muttering to himself.

"We need to be getting him into the medical room to see what kind of hurts he got," said one of the people who had helped Dean out.

She was blond with blue eyes and no name, none that he knew of anyway. The entire crew of this ship had no names or if they did, kept them to themselves.

Dean had snuck about at night during their time together, eavesdropping on the conversations had by the people, to try to find out their names or more about them. Even not knowing Dean was there, or maybe they did, all Dean knew was that if they'd sensed his presence, they didn't show any signs of knowing he was there, they only spoke of the job ahead and never mentioned names in conversation. They talked directly and only when they had to. They never conversed socially, laughed, or even shared jokes or personal experiences. They never smiled, never frowned. Their only expressions were blankness and determination.

Dean turned to Sam and walked in his direction.

"Sammy? We have to see how they hurt you, okay? This way."

Dean again gently touched Sam, this time holding his hand and leading him to the medical room. Sam followed, but didn't look at him or anyone. He just stared off blankly. The blond and another crew member, a tall male red-haired man in his middle age, followed them. All eyes that weren't Sam's were on him, watching his every move.

When the door to the medical room of the ship opened, Sam froze, looking ahead into the room. He shook his head and turned to walk away. Dean stopped him, putting an arm across his chest, and turned him back to the medical room. Sam pushed away from Dean then with such force dean stumbled a little. He looked up, startled, into Sam's eyes.

"You're not cutting on me again! No one, not ever! Get back!"

"Sam, we're just trying to help."

Sam shook his head and turned to run, but the blonde and red head grabbed him. She blonde stuck a big needle in his neck and injected. Sam stopped struggling and slumped against them, limp. Dean's eyes widened and he ran at them, furious.

"Get off of him!"

"It's just a sedative. Don't get all worked up," the red head said calmly.

Dean calmed himself, but till stared at the lot with suspicious eyes.

"Be careful with him," he growled.

The three of them took Sam into the room to overlook him. There were a couple of small scars around his head and needle punctures about his body, but other then that, his physical health seemed fine. Now his mental help was another story. It would have to be dealt with as it became an issue. The problem was, Dean had absolutely no idea how to help his brother if he had mental issues. He was no doctor and had no medicine. Back on his planet, the insane were either dealt with in a normal-like way or bound when they got out of control. The dangerous ones were kept in cages, locked up. There was no way Dean was doing that to poor Sammy.

He felt like crying, but calmed himself down again. There was no good in getting worked up over something that might not even be a problem. Then again, to foolishly believe that Sam wasn't probably seriously affected in bad ways by whatever was done to him would be stupid and ignorant.

Either way, right now Dean had to focus on the task ahead of him. The deal with these people was that once Sam was rescued, Dean was to take him and be off. They put Sam into a cryonic sleep and placed his body into a special crate. It tore Dean into pieces to do this to his little brother, but in order to move about with him unknown, it had to be done until they found a place to hide. Dean couldn't exactly walk around a popular planet with the Alliance out looking for Sam.

They dropped him off at Persephone where he was to go dock onto a ship and find a remote planet to hide with Sam on. After being flirted with by a cute girl with sandy dark-blonde hair, he found himself on a firefly with one of his fake names led by an agitated. Dean didn't care for any of the crew of passengers, other than the girls. The girls were hot, especially the "ambassador" who revealed herself to be a companion, the only beings in the verse with ties to the Alliance government that Dean had absolutely no problem with. Every time he tried to bring up just a smidgen of hostility, his eyes would see their forms and his libido would say, "NO, Bad boy. Charm the hot girl, don't hate her. How could you possibly hate those tits?"

The girls, however hot they might be, still didn't hold his attention because his little brother was in a crate in the cargo area that Dean wasn't allowed in! Worry ate at him like a vulture picking the flesh off a dead creature and he found himself sneaking into the place anyway. He was Dean Winchester and the _chiang-bao hoe-tze duh_(5) rules meant nothing to him.

He stared at the crate with his brother in it and found himself whacked in the head by the Captain. The said Captain pointed a gun at him which Dean knocked out of his hands. With the weapon gone, they began fighting physically. A few minutes went by with hands, arms and feet flying every which way to strike at each other.

"Gorram FED!" Mal cried out before Dean clocked him in the jaw.

"_Fung luh_(6) maniac!"

They tossled some more and Mal pinned Dean to the floor, punching him in the face repeatedly. Then a voice sounded to both their ears.

"I hate to interrupt this scuffle when you both seem to be so infatuated by it, but you've got the wrong man Captain."

Both men looked up to see the Shepherd standing there, Mal with his fist frozen in mid-punch and, with both confused faces, they wondered the same thing. The _Shepherd_ was a fed?

But then they saw the gun pointing at them by another man, some random dude Dean couldn't even remember the name to.

"Both of you! Off the ground with your hands in the air."

After a bit of struggle, they complied, standing up, though Dean didn't raise his hands.

"This is not my day," the Captain muttered.

"Dean Winchester, you are under arrest."

"Oh… you mean _him_," Mal said, looking over at Dean. "Hey, is there a rewa- _Dean?_"

Dean looked over at the man, the Captain, and suddenly recognized him. He really should have recognized him before, but SHIT, Dean was an idiot.

"Sergeant Malcom Reynolds?"

"_Tee wuh duh pee-goo!_(7)"

They'd fought early on in the war together for a few months before parting to fight on different planets. This whole worrying-about-his-brother thing was really messing up the workings of Dean's mind!

"What are you doing here, what kind of trouble have you got in Dean?"

"I'd tell you, but I'm not so conversational with a gun pointed at our faces," Dean responded.

"Oh, right…"

"Look, I hate to break up the reunion, but I'm arresting dean Winchester, and as far as I'm concerned, this whole ship is under arrest. You're traveling with a wanted fugitive and you expect me to believe you're dropping off medical supplies?"

There was a bit of arguing and the cute girl that Dean flirted with earlier walked into the room asking what was going on. Dean saw the fed turn to her, about to shoot, and reacted instantly, snatching the discarded gun off the floor and shooting the fed's hand. The shot from the other man's gun still went off, but thankfully missed the girl.

The fed was attacked a minute later and thrown to the floor. One of the crew members went to shoot him, only to be blocked by the preacher. When the man raised a gun up with a threat, intent on killing the man who tried to hurt Kaylee even if it meant shooting the Sheherd in the process, a gun was pointed at him by…

"_Zoey_!" Dean felt ashamed of himself. He'd checked out the gorram woman and _still_ didn't recognize her!

Zoey looked at Dean with that narrowed, suspicious look of hers, studying his face for a few moments before looking self-horrified as well.

"Little Winchester? You finally hit puberty!"

Yeah, they'd fought in the war when Dean was still fifteen.

"_Bizui!_(8)" the annoyed 'little' Winchester snapped.

"Why the fake name?" she asked. "What's all this fuss about?"

"Apparently he's in trouble with the feds," Mal answered.

"Look, I'm sorry and I'll explain this, but can we run before that fed's little bitch buddies catch up?" Dean asked.

Mal gave the orders to run and the fed was tied and taken up to a place to be held captive and the Captain, while providing Dean the courtesy of running due to their war-bond, wasn't comfortable enough to go without demanding to know what was going on and ended up forcing Dean at gun point to open the crate.

The shock was evident in the faces of those present at seeing naked Sam curled up in the crate, especially the ones of Zoey and Mal. Moments later, Dean's little brother was screaming and Den had to wrap his arms around his little brother.

"It's okay Sammy, it's okay. You're safe."

"That's Sam?" Mal asked, looking shocked as hell. "Tiny Sammy? Is he part-tree? Wow, he sure grew an awful lot."

"What's wrong with him?" Zoey asked, looking sad for the youngest, but tallest, Winchester.

Sam's face seemed to contort in agony as he rambled. Dean ignored the comments as he focused totally and completely on his brother.

"Oh _God_, Dean, they hurt me. They hurt me so bad. My brain, it hurts."

Sam was rocking back and forth, head in hands, sobbing and breathing erratically. Dean rubbed Sam's back, trying to comfort him, but Sammy continued, rambling.

"Oh God, the thing's… I've… s-seen. I was s-so stupid. How could I? How could I g-go? What they did, the Alliance…. And Mom… oh God, Mom… Mom killed… Reavers… God, no, can't be, but is…. Oh, my head!"

"Please Sammy, calm down. You're safe, okay? They aren't going to hurt you anymore."

Dean's eyes were moist at the sight of his brother so broken. He had no idea what to do for him, what to say, and it seemed to make no difference, he was still rambling. Sammy, his little brother, was broken and crying and rambling and rocking back and forth.

Can't take it, hurts so bad. Doesn't belong… No no no, make me forget. Must forget… Stop it all. Dean! Dean Dean Dean! Help me," Sam begged hysterically.

"I-I am. I'm right here. Right here, it's fine. Everything's going to be okay Sammy."

"DEAN!" Sam shrieked, as if not knowing his brother was right there in front of them.

Dean was crying now too, right there in front of the whole damn crew to see, but his focus wasn't anywhere but on Sam. He grabbed his baby brother's face and forced Sam's tortured broken hazel eyes that used to be so warm, sweet, soft, and loving to look into his own, protective, sympathetic jade gaze.

"Sammy," Dean repeated.

Sam seemed unfocused, still sobbing and looked away, whimpering a little.

"SAMMY!" Dean yelled. "It's Dean."

Sam tried to pull away from Dean's grip on his face.

"It's your brother Dean, LOOK at my gorram face Sammy! SAM!"

Finally, Sam looked at Dean and saw him. When he did, he gasped and threw himself at Dean, holding onto Dean with all of his strength.

"Make it go away Dean, make it all go away, the memories…"

Zoey and Mal were by Sam and Dean's side now. Mal acted first, kneeling before Sam and putting a hand on his shoulder. Sam flinched and whipped his gaze over to the man, clinging onto Dean impossibly tighter.

"Sam," Mal said as he looked at the man with soft eyes. "Do you remember me?"

"Sergeant Malcom Reynolds, battled with in the first months of the war."

"Well, I'm a Captain now of a ship that you and your brother are on. I swear to you that we will keep you safe from whatever put you in this hurt. There's no need to worry. Zoey is here too, and she says the same, don't you Zoey?"

"I do Captain," Zoey agreed. "You're safe here with us Sam."

Dean carded his fingers through Sam's hair and continued to hold his little brother, still completely focused on making his brother okay.

"You see Sammy? It's fine now."

Sam sighed and Dean thought he would be okay. At least he wasn't crying. Then Sam hunched over slightly and pressed his forehead against Dean's shoulder, muttering and mumbling about things that didn't make sense. He muttered about danger, blue hands, worms inside his head, rotting bodies, of broken souls and broken glass.

Dean still held him, petting his hair, wondering what the hell he was talking about, wondering if Sam would be alright, wondering if he was too broken and if the best thing would be to put him out of his pain, a mercy kill, though he knew he would never ever do it and that he'd shoot anyone who tried. He wondered if Sam, this broken pile of misery before him could ever go back to being his brother. He wondered if anything of his Sammy was still inside. It was horrible for Dean, to be willing to throw himself to Reavers to make Sammy all alright, mind and body, but to be unable to really do a damn thing to help him get to that place.

"It's alright Sammy," he whispered brokenly into Sam's ear, knowing that these words would become a broken record he would have to play over and over again now and in the near future.

Sam froze and stopped mumbling for a minute. There was a moment of silence, and then… "It's _Sam_."

Dean laughed, whipping the tears away from his cheeks with one hand before hugging his brother tightly. That right there, just moments of clarity like that, that bit of true and whole Sam, was so worth everything he had to go through to get his little brother back and tenfold at that. If these bits would keep coming, no matter how loony Sam got in the future, gave Dean the hope that he could somehow get better.

"Dean, I appreciate your comfort, but get off me and go get some gorram clothes. I'm cold."

Dean ignored him and hugged onto Sam tighter, who was now starting to struggle.

"DEAN! I'm naked! Stop it, this is awkward!" Sam shrieked.

Yeah, Dean thought as Zoey left to get the poor hug-raped little brother some clothes. It was going to be okay on this somewhat beaten-up looking firefly with Mal and Zoey and the rest of this crew that Dean and Sam would soon get to know. Even if the Sammy's brains _were_ a little scrambled, it was still his little brother and he would get better. Dean would make sure of it. He and Sam would be just fine.

THE END

(probably)

1: Dammit!

2: Dog-humping bastard

3: Holy mother of God and all her wacky nephews!

4: Remorseless harridan

5: Monkey raping

6: Loopy in the head

7: Kick me in the bottom!

8: Shut up!


End file.
